Monday, November 4, 2013

Potpourri

I bought so much felt food today that I could almost host a felt dinner party!
That was the sentence that I wanted to start this post with in order to explain that, hey everyone, I bought a whole bunch of felt food today that I'll be giving to my nieces for Christmas. But then I realized that's... pretty much it.

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I don't know how to tell this story without making myself sound lame and incompetent, but here it is anyhow: I got a needlestick last week. We had a patient come in who was having knee pain so the doctor decided we should aspirate the fluid from the joint. I was all sterile techniquing and prepping the area and whatnot and then the doctor handed me the (sterile) needle and the (sterile and empty) syringe and said "Okay now you have to make sure that the needle is on really tight because if you have an air pocket you won't get any fluid when you pull back." So I diligently grasped the needle and the syringe, attached them together, and then gave them a good twist to make sure they were nice and tightly fitted together.
And then my hand slipped and the cap came off and the needle jabbed THROUGH MY THUMB and into my palm and all of a sudden I was standing there with a bare needle in one hand and a handful of blood in the other and it was all just a crappy week from that point on.

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I was driving yesterday and I said to my boyfriend (yep, boyfriend. I'll have to tell you more about him later!) "Hey, I think that's the pawn shop where I sold some of my jewelry." And he said "Well, that's kind of sad." And I've been thinking about it and I guess it is sort of sad. Except for it was a couple of years ago and it wasn't any, like, heirloom or something from my parents. It was actually just some jewelry from an ex. I didn't wear it and I needed the money so I sold it and I don't regret doing so.
This has gotten me thinking about a couple other things. Ex boyfriend KC painted me a picture of my cat for Christmas a couple years ago and then got it all fancy framed for me. Which, at the time was nice except that it wasn't a surprise since he painted it in my apartment and also I later found out that back when he was with his ex girlfriend he had painted a picture of her cat and presented it to her as a gift and also that her painting included a love note written on the back. I wasn't sure which one to be more upset about at the time-- the fact that that mine did not include a love note or the fact that the painting itself was a RECYCLED GIFT IDEA. But I digress.
Anyhow I still have the thing, it's sitting in my storage locker and I'm not sure what to do with it. I'm not going to give it back to KC, who I haven't seen or talked to in two years. I'm not going to give it to the Goodwill because I don't want someone to buy it and have a portrait of MY cat in their house, but I also don't want to throw it away because it's of my CAT and if I'm superstitious at all (which I am) I feel like that might invite bad karma onto him or something. It's also not the best painting of a cat you may have ever seen-- he took a photo of Bowie and then enlarged it, and then traced it on a canvas and then sharpied a grid and used the grid as a guide for where to paint the colors, which means that you can see a grid in the background of the painting.
Relatedlyish, there was a dude I dated for a little bit who brought me a painting of a bicycle and then asked me to shave his back. I actually like the painting-- it is of an old-timey bicycle with, y'know, the HUGE front wheel. So I like it because it's quirky and looks like something I might have picked out for myself and I thought I might just be able to forget about the guy and his odd body hair request, but... Okay no. I just decided that I'm not going to keep it. Okay, is anybody in the market for a portrait of my cat and a painting of a bicycle?
I feel like I should circle back around here and point out that current boyfriend is a good gift-giver. He's also nice to me. Smiley face, etc.

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I started taking my nieces and nephew to the flea market which is a win-win because I get to hang out with them and I also get to go to the flea market. At first they were shy to talk to the booth owners but now they're total pros, "How much is this? Oh fifteen dollars you say? I'll give you eight." I STILL sometimes get flustered and embarrassed when I try to haggle "Twenty dollars? Ummmmmm. Yeah okay. Here. [Runs away]", so it looks like this is yet another way that my nieces and nephews are cooler than I will ever be.

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Whenever my dad goes to Starbucks for my mom he says his name is "Pete" in the hopes that someday someone will call out "Pete's coffee!"